


Death and Clouds

by anxiouslyfred



Category: Sanders Sides (Web Series)
Genre: Character Death, Demon Roman, M/M, Raising the Dead, Soulmates, Vampire Remy, cursing, demon Remus, description of an afterlife, eldritch virgil, ghost deceit, sex mention, soulmate poems, stormcloud virgil
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-17
Updated: 2019-12-17
Packaged: 2021-02-27 01:01:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,402
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21838765
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/anxiouslyfred/pseuds/anxiouslyfred
Summary: Dee has had a very strange morning that has left him dead almost immediately after sharing one of his soul poems with a friend. Neither his friends, nor the two strangers that had found their way into his room agree with that death being completely permanent.
Relationships: Anxiety | Virgil Sanders/Dark Creativity | Remus "The Duke" Sanders/Deceit Sanders, Creativity | Roman "Princey" Sanders/Sleep | Remy Sanders
Comments: 7
Kudos: 58
Collections: Sanders Sides Secret Santa 2019





	Death and Clouds

**Author's Note:**

> For Loveceit on Tumblr. I hope you're having a wonderful Christmastime. I've done my absolute best to fill as many of your wishes as I could and this was the result.   
> Merry Christmas and I hope you enjoy it.

Meeting new supernatural beings was always an experience for Dee, from making a deal with the demon, Roman, to meeting Roman's soulmate Remy mid-talkshow there was always something dramatic involved. Although after having a demon and a vampire set on matchmaking for him, Dee should have expected the dramatics of them. At least Roman wasn't constantly persistent over reading the soulmate poems Dee had, unlike Remy.

Dee had always been reluctant to share the two poems he'd received, hiding them carefully and separately for all of his life. Soulmate poems were precious and individual to everyone, received when they were fifteen and there would always be a poem for each soulmate you had. Dee had kept each poems safely guarded all his life until today.

Even after making the deal to get his talk-show and the regular questions over what his soulmate could be like due to it Dee kept them guarded closely. Societal convention ensured only people you trusted explicitly could have soulmate poems revealed to them. Why that now included Remy was a mystery to him, especially given the vampire had immediately summoned an unknown demon before being knocked out by said demon.

The interrogation over whether or not he was a murder or variety of other types of criminal would have been amusing if Dee understood why it was happening. Instead of any explanation however he was back to trying to protect and hide the one soulmate poem he had allowed Remy to see when finally asked what was spoken about prior to the summoning.

Laying on his bed wasn't doing anything to prevent the new demon, introduced as Remus, from getting the poem out from underneath the mattress. It had been all he could think of to try beyond physical confrontation which Dee was not going to attempt in any stretch of imagination.

The appearance of Roman momentarily seemed like it could solve whatever situation was evolving, except he was followed immediately by someone who appeared to be a scientist.

His introduction and attempt to clear up what was happening so far as he knew was cut short by a blast of lightning coming from nowhere. That was the last thing Dee knew.

* * *

Dee had never wondered what made people alive or human and he wasn't very happy now he had the answer of souls. All the religions indoctrinating people with promises of Heaven, Hell, reincarnation or whatever and all he found now he was dead was lights rushing past and around, softly changing colours as they went. It would have seemed like houses covered in Christmas lights through the window of a speeding car if it wasn't for the silhouettes of trees that appeared every few minutes.

He wasn't entirely clear on how he had died really, just that there were two strangers somehow involved in it and that the stupid vampire had summoned one of them. If there's ever a time to insult someone without repercussions it should be when you're dead, so Dee felt no concern over insulting the farmer he'd been forced into meeting.

It also proved that keeping his Soul Poems close had been the most sensible thing he'd ever done, regardless of what Remy had insisted. Dee had shown the poem which bewildered him most to Remy and ended up dead within half an hour of it. It had felt like a lightning strike despite the clear day, teaching him to protect the poems ever more carefully. What a shame he'd never learn who those poems referred to now.

The lines drifted through his mind as the trees around him faded from purple to blue and then to green, a reverse rainbow dazzling his senses.

_He watched the lands form again_

_And runs before he can remain._

_When overwhelmed he is gone,_

_But never together alone._

**Not as old as one supposes**

**Still younger than the hills.**

**Crimes are what he composes,**

**Anarchy what he wills.**

Neither gave him positive views of the people they described, but then again, he _had_ begrudgingly befriended a Demon and a Vampire for the past three years. It would make sense to expect to meet someone older than the hills and still surviving.

Dee found that he could control how he moved among the trees if he concentrated, finding it more useful to focus on what he could do while dead than the conversations that brought him here. In fact, he knew one of the strangers present when he died was a demonic brother to Roman from the small amount of time they'd spoken before Roman and the other stranger had interrupted them.

He picked a direction and decided to try and find the end of what he had decided must be a forest, ignoring how certain the stranger who had introduced himself as Remus had been that Dee must be a criminal. Even among demons there must be specialities for that assumption to happen but it didn't explain why Remy would summon them. The poem he'd seen didn't even mention crimes as the other did.

That thought entirely removed his focus from controlling where he travelled. The demon he hadn't known even for an hour would be reading the Soul Poem he's guarded with his life before today. It felt like an invasion of privacy and a violation. At least the second one was safe, hidden somewhere completely different both to where the first poem had usually been kept and where he'd scrambled to hide it while Remy summoned Remus, going so far as to lay on the bed after putting it under the mattress.

How fitting he died in bed, under extremely suspicious circumstances after getting interrogated over if he was a murderer or not. The demon should at least be happy with that. The only thing missing from his list of questions was theft really but like he'd pointed out then, his shows charity drives and donations were often called theft by business owners, politicians and other wealthy destroyers of the world. Perhaps his death could be blamed on one of them and have one less villain in control of society.

The entire time he'd been in the forest there hadn't been another soul he'd seen, but now that he'd started simply drifting while pondering his last moments, there were hands slowing him that felt far more alive than Dee currently did. Roman should be the only person able to find his soul now, he absently thought.

It must have been similar to how snakes felt when handled the way his soul wove and lengthened around the hands gently trying to grip him. The sound of bubbles popping was almost similar to speech but not enough for him to try and understand it, instead he thought of just what Roman had said when they'd first met to make a deal. “It will be a side effect of accepting the deal that I can find you wherever you are for eternity, including after death, but the deal I'll offer is you have to let me be a guest on your first show and my soulmate a guest on your second for me to give you the Talk show you're dreaming of.”

Dee had been very suspicious even then over what was being offered despite having researched the summoning and brought a demon to himself deliberately. Perhaps given the person now holding him, he had been right to do so. Roman could have no reason to come and find him unless there was something his brother wanted, perhaps that could cause this handling.

* * *

Fetching souls hadn't been done in centuries, but all demons knew how to do it. In all truth Roman was learning more about Dee from where his soul had been found than he had understood about the human in the years they'd known each other. Remarkably few souls are ever disillusioned enough with the world to find the forest of lights and, while he'd known Dee didn't think much of society, he had not realised his views on people were negative enough to reach here.

Roman would need to make another deal with Dee if he were to manage more than simply fetching the other back from his afterlife but, he supposed, that would be the final confirmation of Dee being his brothers soulmate. No demon ever needed a deal to help their soulmate so, if all the yelling of Remy and Remus was to be believed, Remus should be able to at least partially restore Dee to a form of life, be it simply as a ghost.

Reappearing back in Dee's room, the first thing Roman noticed were the clouds – wisps of them stabilising Remy from the injury he'd awoken from shortly before Roman was sent to fetch the soul, and even more wrapped around Remus.

Those clouds were flowing, moving with his brother’s restless actions even as Remus murmured to them, “Hey, I know, calm down. He's human but that doesn't mean we're in danger. Our friends wouldn't let you go through that again. Besides he's definitely dead now, just like our poems say. _His death no such disguise,_ **All too soon he dies.** ”

The lightning flashing around them would have been as concerning as it had been when Roman last stood in the room if they didn't trust or at least know Virgil.

Roman announced his presence holding the soul out just slightly from his body. “I've got Dee's soul here, unless you need to carry on calming them.”

Dee's body was still laying on the bed in the corner, having fallen to one side after the panicked lightning from Virgil struck him. Remus and the larger part of Virgil's cloud were by the foot of the bed, hopefully calming each other down for what Remus would now have to do to properly meet their final soulmate.

Given the death they'd already brought the soul, Roman was a little cautious about letting wisps of cloud take it from him as they shot towards the door he was in front of. Nobody really knew just what strength Virgil had but being able to damage a soul seemed like it could fall under them.

“Release Him!” Remus's command had to be listened to. Gentle tendrils of cloud wrapped around the soul to bring it to Remus.

Watching his brother form the ghost was fascinating; his hands formed the shapes of a body first, softly moulding the soul. Roman admired Remus’s subtle control over the colourful tendrils until a quiet groan shifted his focus.

Remy was now leaning against the wall clear signs of having been whacked by Remus's morning star in the graze over his forehead and ruffled hair, although some of that could come from the wisps of cloud still misting around his body. By the time Roman had originally arrived in the room Remy had been stirring enough to scold both Remus and Virgil about killing their soulmate when he'd summoned Remus to avoid any such hysterical reactions. It was no wonder that now Remy was finally starting to relax he had a lot of pain to groan about. “Confiscate his weapons, please, Your Highness?” He muttered, turning pleading eyes on Roman.

“No can do, Dear. Then he'll just use his deals to get back at you instead, and I'm sure you don't want your farm impacted by all of this?” Roman chuckled, wrapping an arm around his love and returning to observe the ghost forming.

Virgil must have been doing something as there was lightning and wisps of cloud moving through the soul and clearly guiding the powers Remus was putting in as well as enhancing everything being done. As Dee's form became clearer, it solidified more than that of a natural ghost –vaguely translucent instead of completely transparent.

The gaze of the ghost landing on him was momentarily confusing before Dee spoke. “I didn't make another deal. This makes perfect sense.”

Dee had been dead while everyone else learnt who his own soulmates were.

* * *

This room was too small for Virgil's usual cloud form to stay in, but when upset and worried they could fit their size to anywhere they needed to be, especially if they were too scared to stay in the humanoid form they used daily.

Some beings might think that their phobia of humans was irrational, but most beings would never experience the horrifying sight of an entire growing civilisation, turning into a deranged mob over a wish that the people themselves are preventing from happening. Those are the scenes scattered through Virgil's history and the ones they now work to avoid wherever possible. Avoiding that included avoiding all settlements of humanity wherever and whenever possible.

Every being in this time has a human persona, but as a notoriously aloof scientist paving the way for actual human campaigning to save the environment, Virgil usually had control over when they met humans. Losing their soulmate, panicking, and then finding themselves standing in a human’s room upon finally locating him was enough to send Virgil’s panic astronomically high.

Finding out straight after that the human was their missing soulmate didn't do much to calm them down though. It was only from soothing words and Remus reading the poem about them for the human aloud that they managed to regain a semblance of a form.

Normal communication was complicated to achieve when their form was a cloud, but gestures always seemed to be understood between their family. Wrapping around Remus didn't cause the demon to shiver but to start caressing their clouds and tangling fingers in the lightning as much as is possible to do so with plasma.

Remus was still murmuring and had been doing so constantly since Roman had left nearly an hour ago, simple things to comfort and relax them that would work on a normal day, but Virgil's mind was already turbulent with facing a human. Hearing that they'd killed their soulmate left them both eager and terrified to meet Dee, beyond the cut off introduction that echoed through their mind.

“ _Hi. I'm Dee. I’m apparently the only human here and Remus is-”_ Virgil's lightning had stopped them from learning whatever had occurred before they could follow Roman to his brother.

“Hey, I know, calm down. He's human but that doesn't mean we're in danger. Our friends wouldn't let you go through that again. Besides he's definitely dead now, just like our poems say. _His death no such disguise,_ **All too soon he dies.** ” Tuning back in to what was being said in the room as they could feel Roman returning, Virgil managed to catch the last words meant to soothe him before all the focus moved to the returned soul.

Part of Virgil wants to take the soul for themself and see if they could restore the human fully to life as they'd been rumoured to do once upon a history. There's far too much risk in that going wrong though, so they merely send a few wisps over to Roman, wrapping around the soul to bring it further into their form and closer to Remus, hearing the command for Roman to let him take it vaguely.

Their focus remains on their soulmates, knowing with certainty that they were indeed soulmates as nothing inhibits Remus's powers when he begins to form the ghost with no attempt to communicate with the soul at all. Forming ghosts is easy; occasionally souls make themselves into ghosts without any external input at all. Often they are aided by demons, accidentally brought into deals by their fears of damnation or hell being found in the afterlife, or by the living wanting their lost loved ones to remain forever and not realising just how literal that term is. What Virgil wishes for their soulmate is far beyond that meagre existence of blowing things over, being seen through and only able to move paper, so they guide the progress of Remus's powers.

Remus was one of the most tactile people Virgil had ever met and they knew the incorporeal form of a ghost would be difficult for him to handle so they focused on ensuring the form would be mostly solid when the ghost willed it. Their lightning crackled close to the surface, eager to now help the soul it had released in their panic (whether that would provide the ghost with lightning powers was a matter for another time).

The form still laying on the bed, wasn't identical to the form becoming visible as the ghost solidified under their guidance. There were slight differences where Remus’ imagination lent from or the Soul's image of itself differed from the form it had once held. Similarly, Virgil noticed too late that they'd focused more energy on one side of the ghost, giving them half a form more transparent than intended, although still far more solid than a typical ghost.

As the ones who put the energy into forming the ghost and the forms closest to them, Virgil had expected the attention to turn to them straight away. Instead what happened was the ghost looking Roman dead in the eye before speaking. “I didn't make another deal. This makes perfect sense.”

Virgil would have spoken up then if they were calm enough to be in their humanoid form, but instead simply pulled some of the wisps from around the ghost until they were acknowledged.

“That's the soulmate exception.” Of all the times for Roman to forgo the flowery speeches on the power of love, this had to be the least helpful one possible. Their thoughts were clearly reflected by the new ghost, raising an eyebrow at the demon and smirking.

“You are so not my soulmate. Neither poem even vaguely applies.” Remus was almost bouncing in place, about to pipe up and say something, but, if Virgil was to guess, torn over just how to introduce himself again only as the soul's soulmate now.

Roman waved towards them with one hand, making the ghost turn. “Not me. Remus is the one to sweep you off your feet, hence why he is directly behind you while I'm over here with my Remy.”

“You could have warned me you had a brother and he's an anarchist.” The flat tone doesn't change although Virgil and Remus are being dissected by the gaze over them now, not that it's really registering Virgil as a person yet.

“He knows me so well already. That's me, De-dee.” Remus cannot hold his want to touch back any longer, leaping forwards to cling to the ghost and trusting Virgil's strength to have provided a corporeal form.

“Anarchist who will get his arms detached if not removed from my person.” Virgil reacts to Dee's words immediately, pulling Remus back with wisps of cloud, further away than either of them had been before. The new ghost might be their soulmate, but everything said so far just showed that he wasn't convinced of that fact, nor particularly enthusiastic to be so.

Dee makes a thoughtful noise at the action, focusing more on Virgil's clouds than he had before, obviously only focusing on one change in his apartment and life at a time, but they have to concentrate on Remus as he begins to fight and whine. “Viiiirgillll, I wanna hug him!”

Lighting singeing his hair is enough chiding for Remus to stop fighting against the restraint, now actually listening to the boundary now there's been a moment for him to understand it.

“I've never had a chat with a cloud before. You're easier to understand than I'd have thought.” Dee has stepped a little closer, still watching how Virgil interacts with them through wisps and lightning. A hand outstretching to one wisp of cloud still left towards him from forming his ghost was enough for Virgil to tentatively let another couple wrap around Dee.

There's no negative reaction to this form of touch, so Virgil let's Dee be wrapped in their form a little more as new hands caress the wisps.

* * *

Dee could officially say that this was the weirdest day of his existence. He'd died, been brought back as a ghost only to be informed that a demon he'd just met was actually his soulmate. Now, if all of that wasn't bizarre enough, he was wrapped in a sentient cloud and managing to understand what the gestures and reactions of them actually meant.

There had been someone else in the apartment before he died, although only for a moment. That thought increased his curiosity over the being wrapped around him. “Who are you then? The scientist that followed Roman here?” He asks, weaving his fingers with the thin tendrils of cloud that danced upwards as he spoke.

“They're my Virgil. Aren't they wonderful?” Remus insists again, getting Dee to look up, both to the demon and just beyond him to the body on his bed.

He was still trying to connect the dots of just how he had died, but the powerful being Virgil had to be was definitely part of it. “Which makes them my second soulmate, and the reason I'm dead, assuming I've understood everything you're telling me correctly? On that thought, I was hoping you could throw the blame on someone in power? Such as that politician trying to revoke the support for mental illnesses in schools? I'm sure any beings as powerful as each of you could perfect a frame job”

The cloud reaching towards him more, but not touching him was enough confirmation of guilt although Dee didn't think there was a need to be so currently. Remus cheering where he stood was interesting though.

Neither reaction kept his focus as Remy, the one he actually held to blame for the situation, spoke up for the first time see Dee found himself as a ghost. “They better be, or that poem is way way too specific for Virgil.”

“And you are better off getting Roman to do any introductions you decide are necessary in the future either way.” The sharp counter came from Dee naturally, although he would never dream of saying them while in public.

“Sorry for thinking you might want to meet your soulmates. Next time I won't bother helping.” The fired back response accompanied by Remy's pout is almost as amusing as the fact Roman is copying it.

Remus bounces closer to him before any counter can be thrown back. “Which politician specifically? And if I'm doing that we all need to be somewhere else soon!”

“I'm assuming I can stay with you and Virgil then, but that being mentioned, how does transport work as a ghost? There must quicker ways for me to travel than walking or running now, correct?” Dee ignores the first question, not really bothered over who in power gets blamed, as long as they are precisely that, in a position of power.

“The show Dee made is all recorded so I'm presuming he means the last one he had as a guest.” Roman began, as Dee realised the clouds that had been surrounding him start to retreat and coalesce into a humanoid form. “And movement for you should be a case of visualising yourself elsewhere and finding that you are there after a moments focus. It's easier if you have living memories to focus on I'm told but then that might not hold entirely true.”

“Movement should be as Roman described it, I only focused on giving you a more solid form than ghosts usually achieve.” The scientist from before explained, moving closer to Dee once more, having formed away from everyone else. “Wasn't expecting to meet a human today so kind of panicked earlier. Sorry about the death thing.”

There were flickers of lilac lightning in their eyes and dancing across their fingertips as they held a hand out for Dee to shake. “Humans are the worst, you don't have to tell me. So you _did_ have something to do with how I became a ghost then?”

“As much as I knew I could do, might have been able to manage more but I'm really not going to test my limits with the soul of my soulmate.” Virgil grumbled, barely reacting when they were latched onto from behind by Remus also joining in their handshake. “He's tactile and impulsive, but as long as he has time to compute a boundary he'll respect them,” was added on at Dee's raised eyebrow.

Remy had been quiet, just watching the scene unfold after Dee getting irritated over his attempt at introducing his soulmates, but now spoke up again, “Well, you three seem to be learning about each other, and like the pest said, need the space clearing to form the murder crime scene so how about I take Roman out for dinner and leave you to it?” At the trio of blank stares and nod from Roman they both vanished with a wave of the refillable Starbucks mug that scarcely left Remy's side.

“They're going to fuck over matchmaking. I know it.” Remus insisted, still nodding over Virgil's shoulder.

The laugh Dee gave in response to the assertion was automatic. “Still wanting to know where I'm staying now though. Can't exactly be floating around beside my body if we're saying a politician murdered me.”

“I have a remote lab. Let's go there.” Virgil sighed, opening their arms a little. “I can take us there so you don't have to struggle with picturing it this first time.”

Dee let himself be pulled into the embrace, beginning to feel like it just might be true that this pair were actually his soulmates. “You too, Remus. If we're a trio of soulmates might as well have a first hug including all of us.”

“Oooh, is that how all our firsts are going to be?” Remus asked, happily hugging them both and nuzzling into Dee's neck. “Three-way kiss, going straight for a threesome. The mind boggles.”

Both of them snort at the suggestions, relaxing into the touch until Remus pulls away. “Maybe, maybe not, but any other firsts come after framing someone for my murder. Strip the powerful from their positions.” Dee demands, only just getting it out before Virgil's arms tighten.

“And then come home so we can actually carry on getting to know each other.” The farewell isn't real so Dee partially expects it when he's turning into the same clouds that had filled his room in the grasp of Virgil's power.


End file.
